The invention relates to data processing, and in particular to systems and methods for patient risk level evaluation in a remote medical care system.
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art, which may be related to various aspects of the present invention, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Demand for remote medical care has recently increased. A remote medical care center communicates with a plurality of health care locations over a network. A physician of the remote medical care center takes care of patients hospitalized in the health care locations.
An inefficient imbalance exists between the number of physicians in the remote medical care center and the number of patients hospitalized in the networked health care locations. It is, therefore, difficult for the physicians in the remote medical care center to provide sufficient care to all of the patients.
In a conventional remote medical care system, caregivers of the networked health care locations provide preliminary assessments of the conditions of patients hospitalized in the corresponding health care location. A designation highlight is labeled within the remote medical care system for each patient to indicate severity of illness thereof. For example: a patient labeled with a red highlight is assessed as having high severity and requiring intensive care from the medical care center; a patient labeled with a yellow highlight is assessed as having middle severity; and a patient labeled with a green highlight is assessed as having low severity. Patients assessed with a high severity have a higher priority for receiving attention from physicians of the medical care center, and patients assessed with a low severity mot often, rarely receive attention from the physicians of the medical care center.
According to the conventional method, patient conditions are determined by caregivers of individual networked health care locations. Meanwhile, criteria used in determining patient conditions are different for different networked health care locations. Thus, within the remote medical care system, there is no standardized practice in determining conditions of patients. Further, for patients with low severity, caregivers of networked health care location don't inform the remote medical care center of their conditions. In addition, because of the limited number of physicians of the remote medical care center, patients assessed as having a low severity, most often, do not receive attention from the physicians of the remote medical care center.
Hence, there is a need for a method and system for providing remote medical care that can effectively assess conditions of patients hospitalized in networked health care locations with uniformed criteria, thus enabling physicians of the remote medical care center to provide overall medical care to all patients, regardless of the severity of their conditions.